I KNOW MY OWN HEART

Emma's first play which was nominated for the Stewart Parker Award for Best Irish Debut Play.
As the self-educated heiress to her uncle's estate near Halifax in Yorkshire, Anne Lister broke all of the rules of Regency ladyhood. She travelled unchaperoned, studied Greek and geometry, and refused to even consider marriage. She was also known for a flamboyant devotion to women that exceeded the 'romantic friendship' considered normal for the time. This play explores her affairs with three women over ten years, and probes the choices of a woman trying to understand and express herself in a society based on rules and silences. The play is loosely based on I Know my own Heart: the Diaries of Anne Lister, edited by Helena Whitebread (Virago Press, 1988).